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The American Touch in Imperial Administration: Leonard Wood in Cuba, 1898–1902

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

J. H. Hitchman
J. H. Hitchman*
Affiliation:
Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Washington
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Extract

Leonard Wood Served as military governor of Cuba from December, 1899 to May, 1902. As the instrument of United States policy in Cuba, Wood’s administration provides an excellent example of the American touch in meeting the troublesome question of imperialism. This subject of exercising power over other people, as much debated today as it was at the turn of the century, was fully appreciated in its ramifications by those who formulated the Cuban policy of the United States: Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, Secretary of War Elihu Root, Senator Orville H. Platt and General Leonard Wood. Having gone to war with Spain on the basis of the Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, with the famous fourth clause inserted by Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, that Cuba would be left to the Cubans once the island was pacified, the United States refused to acquire Cuba at the Paris peace conference of December, 1898. The United States was pledged to give Cuba her freedom, but opinions divided over the time needed to pacify the island and ensure future stability. Hopefully, by tracing the actions of the military government with regard to schools, courts, the economy, government and the Platt Amendment, it may be seen that General Wood, far from being a bureaucratic proconsul in khaki, attempted to prepare Cubans for managing their own affairs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , April 1968 , pp. 394 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1968

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References

1 Root papers, Root to Lawrence F. Abbott, Dec. 19, 1903; Hagedorn, H., Leonard Wood (New York, 1931), I, 259 Google Scholar; Jessup, P., Elihu Root (New York, 1938), I, 286–7 Google Scholar; Wood, , “The Military Government of Cuba,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXI (March, 1903), 156–7 Google Scholar; Wood papers, Roosevelt to Hay, July 1, 1899.

2 U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of War, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899, doc. 2, I, 16, 32–4; Healy, D.F., The United States in Cuba, 1898–1902 (Madison, 1963), 88, 125Google Scholar; Leech, M., In the Days of McKinley (New York, 1959), 170, 182, 188, 272–3Google Scholar; Capote, D. Méndez, Trabajos (Habana, 1929-30; 3 vols. in 1), III, 201–13 Google Scholar.

3 Hagedorn, Wood, I, 184–8; U. S., Department, War, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899 (Washington, GPO, 1900), 41, 155, 179Google Scholar; U. S. Cong. Rec, 55th Cong., 2d Sess., 293–7, 3969; U.S. Congress, Senate, Report of Committee on Foreign Relations, “Affairs in Cuba,” 55th Cong., 2d Sess., S. Rept. 885; Capote, Trabajos, I, 140–98, III, 232, 243, 255.

4 Wood papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Root to Wood, Dec. 22, 1899; New York Times, Aug. 9, 1899; U.S. Congress, House, Annual Reports of the War Department, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899, doc. 2, “Report of Maj. Gen. J. R. Brooke on Civil Affairs in Cuba,” 23–6, 55 ff.

5 Wood papers, Wood to Root, Jan. 13, 1900, Feb. 6, 1900.

6 Wood, Civil Report, 1900, I, 79 ff., VI, 6–21, II, Civil Orders 12, 13, 93, 116, 152, 314, 318, 487; 1901, X 11–69; 1902, I, 9; Wood papers, Wood to Root, Aug. 6, 1900, Jan. 13, 1900.

7 Wood, “Military Government of Cuba,” Annals, 162–6; Wood, Civil Report, 1901, I, 26; Civil Order 368 of 1900. Also see yearly reports of Hanna and Varona, ibid.

8 Wood papers, Wood to Root, Jan. 13, 1900; Root to Wood, May 16, 1901; Porter, R., Industrial Cuba (New York, 1899), 412 Google Scholar; Wood, Civil Report, 1900, I, 93–4, Civil Order 335 of Sept. 4, 1900; 1901, II, Civil Order 139; 1902, III, 7, 16–21; “Report of Sec. War, 1899,” 19.

9 República de Cuba. Secretaría de Hacienda, Estadística General, Comercio Exterior, July 1902-June 1903. Cuba. Secretaría de Hacienda, Sección Estadística, Industria Azucarera y sus derivados, primera parte, Riqueza Agricolo-Industrial, Zafras de 1901–02, 1902–03, 37–40; U. S., Dept. of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, no. 1, Series 1903–4, Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of the United States, “Commercial Cuba,” 401, 376; Jenks, L.H., Our Cuban Colony (New York, 1927), 85, 136, 161Google Scholar; Brownell, A., “The Commercial Annexation of Cuba,” Appleton’s Magazine, VIII (Oct., 1906), 406–11 Google Scholar; U.S. Senate, Cuba Relations Committee, Cuban Sugar Sales (Washington GPO, 1902), passimGoogle Scholar; Cuba Bulletin [Review] for 1903, 1904; Berle, A. Jr., “The Cuban Crisis,” Foreign Affairs, XXXIX (Oct., 1960), 40–55 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Jessup, Root, I, 332, 345; Wood, Civil Report, 1900, I, 43 ff., Ill, table 8; Wood papers, Wood to Root, Feb. 16, 1900.

11 Wood papers Wood to Root, Feb. 16, 1900; Wood to Root, June 3, 1900; Wood, Civil Report, I, 1901, 21.

12 Wood papers, Wood to Root, Feb. 16, 1900; Wood to Root, June 3, 1900; Wood, Wood to Root, July 6, 1900; Wood, Civil Report, 1900, I, 12–13, 64, Civil Orders 301 and 455; New York Times, Feb. 27, 1900, July 18, 1900; Havana Post, July 21, 1900. Wood called for a convention because he wanted to go with the China relief expedition to Peking and also because he advocated leaving in Cuba an American governor with a veto. McKinley, Root and Wood agreed that political opinion in the United States and Cuba opposed a long occupation and estimated that Cuban government could be prepared within a year or two for independence with safeguards.

13 National Archives, Social and Economic Branch, Interior Division, Bureau of Insular Affairs Library, “Record of Sessions of the Constitutional Convention of the Island of Cuba,” in 7 vols.; Cuba. Senado. Memoria de los trabajos realizados durante los cuatro legislaturas y sesión extraordinaria del primer período congresional, 1902–04. Mención Histórica (Habana, 1918)Google Scholar, passim; Infiesta, R., Historia Constitucional de Cuba (Habana, 1942), 332–42 Google Scholar; Vilá, Herminio Port ell, Historia de Cuba en sus relaciones con España y los Estados Unidos (Habana, 1941), IV, 9, 79–290 Google Scholar; Ortiz, R. Martínez, Cuba: Los Primeros Años de la Independencia (Paris, 1929), I, 192–425 Google Scholar; de Leuchsenring, E. Roig , La Enmienda Platt (Habana, 1935), I, 54–57 Google Scholar. Wood papers, Wood to Root, Feb. 8, 1901.

14 Jessup, Root, I, 308, 312 ff.; New York Times, Nov. 11, 1900; Wood papers, Wood to Root, December 22, 1900; Root to Wood, Jan. 9, 1901; Root to Hay, Jan. 11, 1901; Root to Wood, Feb. 9, 1901; Root papers, Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Wood to Root, Jan. 4, 1901; Platt papers, Connecticut State Library, various drafts; Mención Histórica, 525 ff.

15 Mención Histórica, docs. F, K, L, M, 523–593. Wood papers, Wood to Root, June 9, 1901, Root to Wood, May 31, 1901; for the negotiations on the Platt law, see also the New York Times, Porteli. Vilá, Martínez Ortiz, the available Cuban newspapers (La Discusión, Diario de la Marina, Havana Post).

16 Wood papers, Wood to Roosevelt, Oct. 28, 1901; Wood to St. Loe Strachey, Jan. 6, 1903; Root papers, Wood to Root, June 3, 1900; Wood, “ The Existing Conditions and Needs in Cuba,” North American Review, CLXVIII (May, 1899)Google Scholar; Hagedorn, Wood, I, 184 ff., 216.

17 Martínez Ortiz, Los Primeros Años, I, 427–38.

18 Wood papers, Roosevelt to Wood, March 27, 1901.